The metrics Zoho provides are quite detailed. After taking a look, I’d say that all applications hosted online could benefit from this level of kimono-opening.

The main Zoho Status page displays an aerial view of response times and downtime details for Zoho’s portfolio of online applications. On an average day, the downtime report won’t be of much use, but if you do find an application down, it’s nice to be able to see whether you’re the problem or Zoho is.

The response time metrics are very useful, and by clicking on the “More” links to the right of each listed application, you can drill down. The reports show the response times for various locations around the globe, from Seattle to Singapore to Australia. I also like the graphs showing response time history over the past several hours. This can give you a sense of when a web application that you may use frequently will perform the best.

Zoho doesn’t do the underlying monitoring itself, but relies on metrics tracked by Site24x7.com. As I mentioned in a previous post, Advent/Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu says that JavaScript performance boosts in the Firefox 3.1 and Google Chrome browsers are poised to have a profound impact on performance for applications such as Zoho’s.

As these new browsers speed hosted applications up, Vembu says they may even lead to more types of new features in online applications. These types of improvements, along with the new Zoho application metrics, will allow people using hosted applications to get a real feel for the performance they’re getting. That’s a good thing for web workers, and the level of disclosure Zoho is providing is a model that all online application providers should follow.

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